I am going to compare and contrast Adele’s song “Set fire to the rain” and Schubert’s “Death and the maiden op. 7 no. 3” "Der Tod und das Mädchen", D. 531, written in 1817
(7 years before the String Quartet with the same theme in the second movement, no. 14, D810)
It is true that both songs have very catchy tunes, and are easy to listen to, especially with the ascending notes, it is like a party for our ears, knowing where the melody is going strikes up a feeling of repetition and unity within the songs. Both songs singing about problems of their times also is helping the listener to enjoy the song, if they’ve been through a similar situation or know a friend/family member who has gone through this emotional peril it is easy to feel like you belong to the song, and that the composer is a friend who can help.
First we are …show more content…
The vocals then also enter in bar 8, when the lyrics explaining a woman who let her guard down only to be heart broken, she then explains throughout the song that she “felt something die inside” this death metaphor of being heartbroken exponentially grows to show her loss of power within herself and her unwillingness to go down that road. Similar to losing power within yourself so far to the point of death? I think so. We start with the ascending A, C and D with the bass line playing D, F, C and G. The change into the pre chorus we exit from our normal cadence of (Vll, lV, I) to our un resolved (Vll, lV, lV) which then lead us to our pre chorus of basically the whole melody on the note D, also meant to signify the loss of power “there’s a side to you that I never knew” showing the pain he has caused her. Even though she is the only one singing, we still feel a sort of power struggle, just as we do in death and the maiden. In the end when she is doing her vocal melisma’s, we have the same sort of piano ostinato that we heard in the
(7 years before the String Quartet with the same theme in the second movement, no. 14, D810)
It is true that both songs have very catchy tunes, and are easy to listen to, especially with the ascending notes, it is like a party for our ears, knowing where the melody is going strikes up a feeling of repetition and unity within the songs. Both songs singing about problems of their times also is helping the listener to enjoy the song, if they’ve been through a similar situation or know a friend/family member who has gone through this emotional peril it is easy to feel like you belong to the song, and that the composer is a friend who can help.
First we are …show more content…
The vocals then also enter in bar 8, when the lyrics explaining a woman who let her guard down only to be heart broken, she then explains throughout the song that she “felt something die inside” this death metaphor of being heartbroken exponentially grows to show her loss of power within herself and her unwillingness to go down that road. Similar to losing power within yourself so far to the point of death? I think so. We start with the ascending A, C and D with the bass line playing D, F, C and G. The change into the pre chorus we exit from our normal cadence of (Vll, lV, I) to our un resolved (Vll, lV, lV) which then lead us to our pre chorus of basically the whole melody on the note D, also meant to signify the loss of power “there’s a side to you that I never knew” showing the pain he has caused her. Even though she is the only one singing, we still feel a sort of power struggle, just as we do in death and the maiden. In the end when she is doing her vocal melisma’s, we have the same sort of piano ostinato that we heard in the